Diet Slip-ups Don't Spell Doom

It happens--a piece of cheesecake here, a missed workout there. But diet detours needn't become guilt-wracked weight loss program disasters.

Proof: When researchers put 142 overweight people on the same weight loss program, one group followed the diet for 14 straight weeks; another took a 6-week hiatus at the midpoint; the final group took a 2-week break every few weeks. Eleven months later, everybody had lost an average of 16 pounds on the diet.

"It's not the breaks that hurt weight loss efforts," says study author Rena Wing, PhD, of Brown University Medical School. "It's your negative reactions to the breaks and the subsequent downward spiraling." So enjoy your time off your weight loss program, and then get back on track.

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